Mystery Snail, MTS, and cory eggs and fry, and neo shrimp eggs and fry? do the mix or try to eat each other?

[KittenFishMom]

I got some mystery snails and MTS that I put in my quarantine tank for the time being. I have read that mystery snails leave a nutritious slime trail everywhere they go and are great for fry tanks. I'm wondering if either type of snail are safe for eggs and fry of corys and shrimp?

I have a 10 gallon tank with 3 high fin peppered corys and 30 neocaridina blue shrimp in it. The corys are spawning daily. There are eggs from different days all over the tank. The shrimp are starting to berry.(carry eggs). My guess is the snails would eat or crush eggs, but would be OK for fry. Maybe the snails would avoid eggs? I don't know?

Do any of you know for sure? (including @Guppysnail, @Cinnebuns, @Chick-In-Of-TheSea, @nabokovfan87 )

Hope to hear from you soon,

KittenFishMom

[Theplatymaster]

i have often heard from people like @Dean’s Fishroom that snails will eat the eggs of fish.

[Guppysnail]

Snails eat eggs. No exceptions. They are fine with free swimmer fry. Shrimp are fine with eggs and fry as long as they have food. 
I hatch cory eggs in shrimp tanks. I put fry in shrimp and snail tanks. 

[KittenFishMom]

@Guppysnail Thanks, that made it very clear ! I'll put the snails in the 55 tank.

[nabokovfan87]

The corydoras can lay eggs where the snails likely won't get to them and that takes time for them to learn. It's a process.

I don't keep snails but as mentioned, yeah.... Eggs are food and they eat what they feel like. If you're feeding them something they might avoid others, but then the water can get fouled from feeding too much.

[Dean’s Fishroom]

Snails can eat eggs and/or damage them if not for a meal. I don't think eggs are the primary meal that snails are seeking out, but they probably smell good and if opportunity strikes my guess is they make them a snack. 

Of other concern, you mentioned that you moved the snails to your quarantine tank, be sure to not add medications with them in there by accident. Some meds will kill snails. 

Then again, I have no idea why I'm protecting snails. .. . . . .  .. 

[Cinnebuns]

On 1/19/2023 at 5:43 PM, KittenFishMom said:

. I have read that mystery snails leave a nutritious slime trail everywhere they go and are great for fry tanks

I've actually never heard this. It's entirely possible. There's 2 things that come to mind. 1.  Mystery snails are huge egg eaters so with fry it would be fine but your eggs are not safe. 2.  If a mystery snail is laying a VISIBLE trail of slime that is not a good thing and is a sign of sickness or stress. I'm not sure about any non-visible trail. 

It def something you can try but I lean towards thinking there's better ways to get them fed. I do suggest getting some bacter ae as well as moss and cholla wood if you do not already. Those all help both fry and shrimp. 

[KittenFishMom]

@Dean’s Fishroom The snails arrived in the mail today (you know, snailmail).  I needed to put them someplace and the QT was just sitting there. No meds, just 5 small fish waiting to go to their new home. I put the snails there while I asked if the fish eggs would be safe with snails. The answer was "no", so the snail are out of QT and in the big tank now

Thanks for your input. and warning.

[KittenFishMom]

@Cinnebuns I have a thick carpet of java moss and a lot of cholla in the tank, as well as weeks of melting hornwort leaves. (I left them in RR for 36 hours instead of 12 hours. Big mistake. Very messy.)

I read that mystery snails have a short digestive track and their slime train catches some of the partially digested mulm and holds it in place for fry to eat. It said if you were not going to be able to feed your fry for a day or 2, to put some mystery snails in to provide the fry with something to eat.

I wouldn't use it as real source of food, only as something to fall back on if you might be away. I was thinking it might be easier on the snail to start it in that tanks, because I had not started anyplace yet, but then thought it was more than big enough to eat the eggs before they became fry. I figured the CARE Forum would know for sure.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 1/19/2023 at 9:50 PM, KittenFishMom said:

if you were not going to be able to feed your fry for a day or 2, to put some mystery snails in to provide the fry with something to eat.

I have mystery snails and I’ve yet to see waste or mulm held in place on glass. It all falls straight down to the substrate. However, if you have a medium or heavily planted tank some waste can land on leaves. My fish, when eating falling waste by accident thinking it’s food, spit it out immediately. However, @Guppysnailsays shrimp eat the snail poop because it’s partially digested and has nutrients, and I believe this is true based on observing my shrimp in a tank with several snails.

You may benefit from an auto feeder if you have to be away from home.

Edited January 20, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Guppysnail]

On 1/20/2023 at 5:12 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I have mystery snails and I’ve yet to see waste or mulm held in place on glass. It all falls straight down to the substrate. However, if you have a medium or heavily planted tank some waste can land on leaves. My fish, when eating falling waste by accident thinking it’s food, spit it out immediately. However, @Guppysnailsays shrimp eat the snail poop because it’s partially digested and has nutrients, and I believe this is true based on observing my shrimp in a tank with several snails.

You may benefit from an auto feeder if you have to be away from home.

The shrimp actually eat at the bacteria that grows on the poo that is so poorly digested. 
The fish don’t eat the snail poo. All kinds of wonderful microorganisms  do eat the the poo and the bacteria that grow on and thrive. Small fish  and fry then eat the microorganisms. 

Edited January 20, 2023 by Guppysnail

[Guppysnail]

On 1/19/2023 at 9:50 PM, KittenFishMom said:

I left them in RR for 36 hours instead of 12 hours

Plants still need to “breath” oxygen. I have accidentally left some plants in for 18 hours. The sturdier ones like anubias do fine but the more delicate ones did not. 

[RockMongler]

I have a lot of MTS, and I'm also pretty sure they are the reason I don't ever see much in the way of Whitecloud Mountain Minnow fry ever showing up in my tank.  I see the spawning behavior a lot amongst my minnows, but after introducing MTS, they have basically taken out my bladder snail population (eating their eggs, and then outcompeting for other food), and I suspect they also go to town on any WCMM eggs that get scattered.  My red cherry shrimp do just fine, as they directly care for their eggs, and the shrimplets are able to get away from the snails once the eggs hatch.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 1/20/2023 at 6:55 AM, Guppysnail said:

Plants still need to “breath” oxygen. I have accidentally left some plants in for 18 hours. The sturdier ones like anubias do fine but the more delicate ones did not. 

I killed ludwigia by forgetting they were in RR for like 2, 3 days 😳

[KittenFishMom]

@Guppysnail and @Chick-In-Of-TheSea mine long RR was an accident to. "out of sight, out of mind". Hiding them in the dark meant I didn't see them or think about them, but I hoped the stems would grow new leaves and the melted leaves would make good fertilizer for the tank substrate. "Waste not want not" I am "a daughter of a daughter of The Depression".

 

 

[Rube_Goldfish]

I'd like to put some corydoras eggs in a tank that only has bladder snails and mini ramshorn snails. Could I put an algae water and some zucchini or something as a distraction/bribe/offering to the snails to leave the eggs alone? Would that work, or would it just grow the snail population?